Hosiery board



D c- 22, 1 F. M. SOUTHERLAND HOSIERY BOARD Filed Oct. 22, 1952 ATTORNEYiatented so. 22, 1953 NITED STATE TENT OFFICE HOSIERY BOARD Francis M.Southerland, Mebanc, N. 0.

Application October 22,1952, Serial No. 316,137

2 Claims.

This invention relates to a fabric finishing apparatus, and moreparticularly to a structure employed for drying, finishing, setting andshaping hosiery or the like.

Commercial hosiery manufacturing consists of the knitting of thehosiery, after which the hosiery must be dyed and pressed to shape so asto be free from any creases or wrinkles in order to be readilymarketable. The pressing treatment, known as boarding in the art,usually employs the use of a board or shaping structure conforming inshape to the desired finished article. In practice, the hose is placedover the board and the hose and its board are thereafter placed in adrying room, steam chest or autoclave for the necessary treatment, afterwhich the hosiery and its board are removed and the hosiery isthereafter stripped from the board. Synthetic fibers are now being usedextensively in the hosiery trade, and it frequently becomes necessary ordesirable to shape or pre-set the hosiery after it leaves the knittingmachines prior to dyeing or other treatments. The pre-setting of hosieryformed of synthetic fibers is commonly known in the art as pro-boarding.

The present invention is directed to an apparatus useful in eitherboarding or pre-boarding hosiery and is particularly adapted to thegeneral type of boarding or pro-boarding machines disclosed in Oswald etal. patent, No. 2,351,063. In this type of machine, a plurality or bankof boards, either 24 or 48, depending upon the size of the machine, aremounted upon a common shaft so that the individual boards may be pivotedand rocked into a plurality of positions. Thus, when hosiery is to beplaced upon a board, the latter is rocked about its support to aconvenient position for the operator so that a hose may be placed overthe board. Thereafter, the loaded board is rocked to a difierentposition and a second board is rocked to the loading position. After all24 or 48 boards are loaded, the apparatus supporting the same is placedinto a treating chamber, such as a drying chest, steam chest, autoclaveor the like, depending upon the kind of treatment desired. Of course,after the necessary treatment has taken place, the supporting apparatusis removed from the treating chamber and the individual boards rock to aposition convenient for the operator to strip the hose.

As the boards commonly used in the aforementioned apparatus are formedof metal and are usually cast, such boards are quite heavy and. quiteexpensive to manufacture. In the normal boarding and pre -boardingoperations, it

is necessary to have a bank ofboards for each particular size of hose tobe treated as well as for each particular type of hose. For instance,ankle socks or a given size would require a particular shape of board,while longer socks of the same foot size would require a, diiferentshape of board. or course, ladies hosiery, for the same given foot sizeaforementioned, would re--' quire a still different shape of board.Also, the various types of knitted hose require still different shapesof boards, and the size and shape. of boards suitable for eachparticular class of hose varies with the foot size. Accordingly, whenone multiplies the diiferent sizesand shapes of boards necessary toproperly take care of a hosiery mill by 24 or 48, depending upon thesize of apparatus used, the number of individual boards required becomesexceedingly great. The cost of procuring a given number of boards of allof the various sizes and shapes is exceedingly high, and even thestorage of the same when not in use creates a considerable problem.

In the type of apparatus as disclosed in the Oswald et a1. patentaforementioned, the boards are provided with holes or yokes adjacenttheir bases for mounting upon their shaft and nor mally are providedwith U-shaped openings terminating in a hook shaped portion foractuating mechanism to rock the board about its supporting shaft. Also,arcuate ribs are cast into the lower portion of the board, the ribsacting as spacers for the boards, thus preventing any frictional contactbetween the hosiery placed on adjacent boards. i

When a different size, shape or type of hosiery is to be boarded orpro-boarded from that previously boarded or pre-boarded, it becomesnecessary to remove the entire bank of boards and their actuatingmechanism and replace the same with another bank of boards of thedesired shape and size.

The present invention has been perfected in an effort to obviate anumber of the problems of the prior art. Thus, the prime object of thepresent invention is to reduce the cost and storage space required foreach bank of various shapes and sizes of boards.

Another object of the invention is to reduce the time previouslyrequired in changing a bank of boards.

Other objects of the invention will be obvious to those skilled in theart from an understanding of the invention as disclosed in thefollowing. specification with the accompanying drawings,

inwhich:

Figure 1 is a side view of the invention;

Figure 2 is a sectional view taken on line 2--2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the invention.

The board normally used in the Oswald et al. apparatus somewhatresembles the structure shown in Figure 1, except that the upper shapingportion of the board, 1. e., the portion upon which the hose is placed,is formed integrally with the lower or base portion. The lower or baseportion is provided with a yoke I which is adapted to be secured to ashaft, not shown. The shank H extends upwardly from the yoke and isshaped to provide an arcuate section 12, the latter terminating in ahook-like portion l3. An arcuately shaped spacing rib 14 extendsoutwardly from the section I2. stantially rectangular portion in crosssection as indicated at It. It will be understood, of course, that abank of the aforementioned structure, usually consisting of 24 or 48individual bases, is mounted in its supporting structure which normallycomprises a shaft about which the yoke lllextends and suitable operatingmechanism is secured to the hook 13, etc. so that the bases may berocked from one operating position to another. As the bases are mountedin close proximity to each other, it is necessary to provide a spacingmeans therefor, such as the arcuate rib Hi, to prevent any frictionalcontact between the hose placed upon the boards. All of theaforementioned structure is commonly used with the type of apparatusgenerally disclosed in the aforementioned patent to Oswald et al. Theboards used in the Oswald et al. type of apparatus extended upwardlyfrom the base I6 and were shaped according to the desired shape of thehosiery to b treated; the entire board being cast into one integralstructure.

The present invention is designed to have the shaping portion of theboard detachable from its base, which is evident from the drawings. Thisfunction is accomplished by forming a'rectangular groove of considerabledepth and thickness in the base portion [6, the groove being indicatedby reference numeral 20. One face of the portion l8 overlying the groove28 is cut away to form a U-shaped opening 22. The shaping portion of theboard 25 is provided, at its lower edge, with an elongated slot 26. Theinner face of the base forming the groove has a bolt 30 welded orotherwise fixedly secured'thereto, the bolt 36 being adapted to receivethe slot 26 of the shaping portion of the board 25, as'illustrated. Asuitable washer 3| and nut 32 are provided to lock the forming portion25 to the base I6, as shown in Figure 1. r It should be noted that thegroove 20 is provided-with substantially straight side walls 40, asindicated in dotted lines in Figure l; and that the thickness of theroove 20, as more clearly shown in Figure'3, is considerably greaterthan the thickness of the shaping portion of the board 25. It will alsobe noted in Figures 1 and 3 that the lower portion of the shaping'board25 is of less width than the width of the groove 283, there by enablingeasy replacement of the forming board 25. V

The bolt 30 does not extend through the base, thus preventing a flushside to the base and that the bolt does. not extend beyond the outersurface of the opposite side of the base. The groove 20 is of.suflicient. depth or thickness to, accom- The bas terminates in a submodate the baseextremity of the forming member 25, together with thewasher and nut so that the nut and its bolt do not extend beyond theface of the base it. Thus, there are no parts of the attaching means forthe shaping member which extend beyond the outer coplaner surfaces ofthe base [6, which is of importance. As previously mentioned, the basesare positioned on a common shaft in close proximity to each other, thespacing rib i i of one base usually contacting the opposite side ofanother base. Should any portion of the shaping member attaching meansextend any distance beyond the forces of the base, the bases could notbe rocked relative to each other. 7

It will be understood, of course, that the hosiery mill utilizing thetype of apparatus generally disclosd in the aforementioned Oswald patentwill have a bank, either 24 or 48 as the case may be, of forming orshaping boards 25, one bank for each particular type or size of hosieryto be boarded or pre-bcarded. Upon the assumption that, after hosiery ofa given type or size has been treated on the apparatus it" is desired toboard or p-re-board a different type or size of hosiery, all that anoperator need do is to pivot the first outward board about thesupporting shaft, loosen the nut 32 and thereafter remove the shapingportion of the board 25 from its base. A different size or form ofshaping board having a similar slot, as indicated at 26-, is then placedin the groove 28 so that the bolt 35 extends through th slot 2% and thenut 32 again tightened. This operation is repeated until the entire bankof forming boards have been changed. By such procedure it becomesunnecessary to remove the entire base and release the operatingmechanism secured thereto as would be the case if the board was formedof one integral cast member. As the side walls dd forming the groove 28are substantially straight and parallel with the side walls of the lowerportion of the forming board 25, the forming board 25 is incapable ofany appreciable rocking about the bolt 39.

It will be obvious that while the lower base portion of the board ispreferably cast so as to be capable of withstanding the necessary shocksimparted thereto, the uppershaping portion of the board may be formed ofsheet metal, such as aluminum or aluminum alloy. By being able toconstruct the shaping portion of the board of light weight metal and ingenerally sheet form, storage and transportation from storage to use isfar more convenient than present day practices of having to storea'large number of banks of integrally cast boards with bases.Furthermore, the forming portion of the boards may be made of metalwhich will quickly absorb and dissipate heat, thereby reducing thetreating time of the hosiery. Also, it will be obvious that the cast ofan extremely large number of shaping boards per se with a single set orbank of bases is considerably less than the same number of boards havingintegral bases.

I claim: i

1. A hosiery board comprising, in combination, a base having opposed,faces and end walls and shaft attaching means, a'groove formed in theupper portion of said base positioned inwardly of the side walls, adetachable hosiery shaping member capable of having an inwardlyextending extremity complementary in size andsha-pe to said groovepositioned within said groove, the inner face of one side of said baseforming said groove having a bolt fixedly secured thereto and extendingoutwardly from said face, the opposite face of the side of said baseforming said groove having a cut-away portion opposite said boltextending from the top of said groove downwardly beyond said bolt andproviding a substantial space around the periphery thereof to expose thesame, said shaping member having a slot therein extending upwardly fromthe bottom thereof to receive said bolt, and a nut capable of threadedlyengaging said bolt for detachably securing said shaping member to saidbase.

2. A hosiery board comprising, in combination, a base having opposedfaces and end walls and shaft attaching means, a rectangularly shapedgroove in cross section formed in the upper portion of said basepositioned inwardly of the end walls, a detachable hosiery shapingmember capable of having an inwardly extending extremity complementaryshaped in cross section to said groove positioned within said groove,the inner face of one side of said base forming said groove 20 having abolt fixedly secured thereto and the opposite face of the side of saidbase having a cut-away portion opposite said bolt extending from the topof said groove downwardly beyond said bolt and providing a substantialspace around the periphery thereof to expose the same, said shapingmember having a slot therein extending upwardly from the bottom thereofto receive said bolt, said bolt terminating short of the outer face ofsaid side having the cut-away portion therein, a nut capable ofthreadedly engaging said bolt, the thickness of said. groove beingsuflicient to accommodate said shaping member and nut so that the latterdoes not extend beyond the face of said base.

FRANCIS M. SOUTHERLAND.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,075,346 Flick Oct. 14, 1913 2,321,452 Berger et al June 8,1943

